YMCA CEO quizzed over childcare centre abuse case

A picture drawn by one of Jonathan Lord's victims at the YMCA childcare centre at Caringbah.

Supplied

The YMCA's New South Wales chief executive has conceded childcare staff should have never been forced to sign confidentiality agreements after a co-worker was charged with abusing 12 boys.

Philip Hare today gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The YMCA has come under fire for telling staff at its Caringbah centre in Sydney's south not to talk after convicted paedophile Jonathan Lord was arrested.

Staff have given evidence saying they were forced to sign confidentiality agreements at a time when parents were growing increasingly concerned.

Chief executive Phillip Hare has told the inquiry he would not have allowed that to happen if he had been aware.

Mr Hare says confidentiality agreements were presented to staff by the general manager of children's services, Liam Whitley.

"Mr Whitley did not speak to me specifically about the confidentiality agreements," he said.

He also says Mr Whitley and police did not want to discuss the matter with parents, but as CEO he disagreed.

Mr Hare later held a staff meeting and told the workers to "rip" the agreements up, saying he thought they were "overzealous".

Police have previously said they never instructed the YMCA to keep its staff quiet.

Senior Constable Leanne Kelly from the Kogarah Joint Investigation Response Team says she did not have the power to do that, and simply asked for the contact details of witnesses.

Phillip Hare has conceded that Lord's recruitment represented a "failure".

Lord was hired without the appropriate references or background checks, and had been dismissed from a US summer camp a month earlier for "questionable behaviour" with an eight-year-old boy who was attending the camp.

"The recruitment process wasn't to the standard that we would expect," he said.